George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Rout Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton secured maximum points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team cut loose in the second half.

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the line.

But an error from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith put Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the hosts notched three scores in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rematch of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol next before traveling to face Pau.

Line-ups

Northampton: Furbank; Sleightholme, Hutchinson, Dingwall, Hendy; F Smith, Mitchell; Fischetti, Wright, Davison, Coles, Van der Mescht, Kemeny, Pearson, Pollock

Replacements: R Smith, Iyogun, Kundiona, Munga, Prowse, Graham, James, Thame

Bulls: Williams; Petersen, Gans, Vorster, Jacobs; Wolhuter, Burger; Tshakweni, Van der Merwe, Smith, Wiese, Van Heerden, Coetzee, Ludwig, Louw

Replacements: Else, Sithole, Mchunu, Gumede, Carr, Papier, Johannes, Van Niekerk

Yellow card: Tshakweni (53)

Match Officials

Referee: Hollie Davidson (Sco)

Assistant referees: Rob McDowell (Sco) and Dave Sutherland (Sco)

TMO: Mike Adamson (Sco)